6i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 14 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Death to Arizona Grasshoppers. —In The R. N.-Y., 
page 557, appears an item on Grasshoppers. I think 
that it would be rather too risky to experiment with 
Paris-green upon grain in the manner suggested by 
the neighbor. I feel fully competent to give a rem¬ 
edy, having had experience in exterminating grass¬ 
hoppers Put six pounds of wheat bran into a large 
dishpau ; add one pound white arsenic—both must be 
dry. Stir with a large iron spoon till they are thor¬ 
oughly mixed, being careful to dig up from the bot¬ 
tom as the arsenic will keep working down. Have 
no half way business in doing this ; it must be done 
thoroughly. To a five-pound lard pail full of cold 
water, add 1% pound white sugar, stir gently till 
dissolved, pour it on the mixture slowly and distribute 
the water as evenly as possible ; let it sink through 
the mixture, then stir with the spoon, thoroughly 
mixing till all particles are wet and sticky and every 
particle of bran will be likely to have its share of the 
arsenic, then add about the same amount of cold 
water and stir again till you have a mash that will 
scatter without dropping in lumps. 
Go where the hoppers are thickest, and with care, 
scatter broadcast thin and evenly on the ground if 
bare places can be found between the grain or grass ; 
if not, make a furrow around the edge where they are 
most likely to cross and recross, and scatter the mash 
on and in the furrow. If they are in potatoes or 
corn, you have a good place to work. I will guarantee 
that the hoppers will find and eat this mixture 
in preference to any vegetation, and it is 
sure death to them after they have eaten it. 
The remedy is simple and easy to apply, only 
be thorough with the work in every detail. 
Mo harm will ever come to stock that may 
have the run of the field after the crop is 
off, provided a heavy rain falls after the 
mash has been placed on the ground. I 
don’t like to have the mash fall or lodge in 
the clumps or bunches of grain and grass 
if possible to avoid it, as the hoppers are 
less likely to get it than if it were on the 
ground. I have killed them off; by the mil¬ 
lions and saved my crops when grasshop¬ 
pers were so thick that they destroyed GO 
acres of oats and wheat two years in suc¬ 
cession, just previous to the year that I poi¬ 
soned them in the manner I have just de¬ 
scribed. j. A. M. 
Flagstaff, A. T. 
Some Indiana Notes. —The potato grower 
in Missouri, mentioned on page 573, is suffer¬ 
ing from what farmers call the heart worm. 
The egg is laid by a small beetle. The worm 
pupates in the stalk and remains there all 
winter. There is no remedy for this crop ; 
but burning the vines and rotation are 
recommended. I have 20 acres of potatoes, 
and this worm is very numerous this year, 
killing about one hill in four or five when 
about half grown. In rainy weather, the main 
stalk will send out a few roots about at the 
surface, and show some new life ; sometimes 
it w'ill grow three or four little potatoes like 
peas clustered close to the blunt lower end 
of the stalk. I have seen many fields in Au¬ 
gust where about two-fifths of the plants were 
ruined. The potato crop in this locality was cut 
about one-half by the freeze on May 16, many fields 
were killed and many thinned, while others that 
froze down only two inches, were so stunted as 
to set only two or three to the hill. 
The cutworm destroyed thousands of acres of early 
planted corn, and greatly damaged potatoes. The 
drought and chinchbugruined our wheat and millet. 
To-day, August 25, the bugs are leaving eight acres of 
dead millet utterly ruined, and are passing across 
the roadway, thick enough to darken the ground, in 
search of food. In the early spring, crops were the 
most promising we have known. The record now is, 
wheat much worse than nothing; Timothy and clover 
hay, one-quarter ton per acre; spring seeding of clover, 
dead ; millet, dead ; pasture, dried up ; corn, about 
one-half crop, and potatoes, one-half crop, with dry 
weather still reducing them. Our local rainfall is 
less than 1(5 inches since March 1. 
I rather enjoy fighting drought; would prefer a dry 
to a wet season, but here are five conditions which 
we cannot control, all of which are pressed into one 
season. 
There is a bright side to all this bitter disappoint¬ 
ment ; it gives Nature a breathing spell. We are crop¬ 
ping too hard in the West This long-continued evap¬ 
oration from the surface causes water to bring up 
plant food from the deep soil and deposit it within 
the reach of plants. The tillage of blasted crops also 
acts as a summer-fallow to decompose greatly the 
partly insoluble fertility’’ of the soil. It is in point to 
notice how remarkably productive the dry region of 
the Far West is this year, with plenty of water and 
abundance of plant food accumulated from last year's 
devastating drought. e. h. coli.ins. 
Work of a Windmill. —C. F. II., of Buchanan, 
Mich., seeks more definite explanations of a power or 
geared windmill. I have a 12-foot steel Aermotor 
geared on an 8x8 yellow pine mast in the center of my 
big barn with the necessary braces, etc. I use it for 
sawing wood, grinding all kinds of grain and bone, 
cutting corn stalks, running corn sheller and grind¬ 
stone, pumping water; in fact, for anything that 
needs machine power. As to price, the wheel and all 
above the mast cost me $60 ; shafting 24 cents per 
foot; mast, braces, bolts, etc., about $15 ; mill at the 
bottom of shafting, $30 ; steel frame saw, 26 inches, 
$48 ; labor for putting up mill and incidentals, about 
$25 ; pumping Jack, $15. From the mill pulley I drive 
every other piece of machinery, or attach it to the 
counter shaft, as on very stormy days, I can run two 
and three machines all at the same time. I have 
found that among most farmers, a stormy day means 
little or no work ; but with me it’s the opposite ; the 
greater the storm outside, the more work I can do 
inside. I keep the toll at home, and my mill brings 
me in toll for sawing wood, grinding feed and bone 
for chicken feed for my neighbors. My mill gives me 
good satisfaction, and I would not be without it, as it 
makes me very independent of the hired man. 
Rockland County, N. Y. w. f. k. 
“ A Diet of Worms.” —It is often said that a hen 
THE CARMAN PEACH. Fig. 195. See page 619. 
having the free range of fields and pastures, will 
select the best “balanced ration” to be found. We 
would expect such a ration to be “ narrow”—with a 
large proportion of “ muscle-makers” obtained from 
insects. We recently’ suggested to the Geneva Station 
authorities that analyses of the contents of the crops 
of hens running on a free range might give us the 
basis for some interesting comparisons. In answer, 
acting director Van Slyke gives these interesting 
facts : “ Some experiments with hens having practi¬ 
cally free range, have been contemplated here for 
some time, but it has not been possible, with the other 
work in hand, to inaugurate them satisfactorily’. We 
would hardly feel entire confidence in the results of 
an analysis of the contents of crops which had been 
many’ hours accumulating, until we have a little more 
than our present knowledge of the amount and com¬ 
position of the juices so rapidly mixed with the food. 
Some years ago in connection with an oyster shell ex¬ 
periment, quite a number of partial analyses were 
made of the contents of crops, gizzards, and intestines, 
but they were not extended enough to give much in¬ 
formation on this point. A ration consisting almost 
entirely of grasshoppers would have a nutritive ratio 
of one to one-half, or even narrower—no ordinary 
poultry food except blood furnishing so narrow a 
ration. A hen, however, would require from 350 to 
600 grasshoppers per day, provided she ate as much 
as when eating largely’ a grain ration, which is not 
improbable considering the greater amount of exer¬ 
cise. A ration of earth worms would have a some¬ 
what wider ratio, although still very narrow. It is 
probable that most of the natural animal foods of the 
hen—other insects, worms, etc.—have a similar com¬ 
position. Such a ration, even with some grass, would 
be narrower in ratio than the egg itself, which would 
be about one to two. Where much grain, such as 
buckwheat, is eaten, and fruit or berries, the nutri¬ 
tive ratio would be very wide.” 
Georgia Winter Oats. —With us, the winterkilling 
of oats is a serious drawback on general success in oat 
culture. Spring-sown oats, oftener than otherwise, 
fail on account of dry weather in May and June. Fall 
(or winter) sown are liable to winterkilling, but 
rarely fail of a good yield if the winter be passed 
safely. I have been sowing for some years, a so-called 
“ Winter Turf Oat,” which came from Virginia. It 
has usually withstood pretty severe freezes, but the 
past season, February 8, it succumbed to a tempera¬ 
ture of 3 degrees. My experience covering a period 
of 35 years, is that it is not simply the low tempera¬ 
ture that kills, but it must follow a period of com¬ 
paratively mild, growing weather. It is, therefore, 
the condition of the oat plant at the time the low 
temperature occurs. I have seen a fall-sown (October) 
oat crop, just as effectually killed out by a tempera¬ 
ture of 16 degrees, occurring in January or February, 
as at a temperature below zero. On March 26, 1894, 
our fall-sown oats were from 12 to 18 inches high, 
some heads showing. The thermometer fell to 21 
degrees that morning, and to 19 degrees the follow¬ 
ing morning. Oats generally were killed to the 
ground, but put forth again and made a fourth of a 
crop. Rye five feet high and in full head, 
was utterly ruined. By the way, I trans¬ 
planted into rows a few plants of the Winter 
Turf that survived the cold of February 8 
last, with a view to illustrating the doc¬ 
trine of the “survival of the fittest,” and hop¬ 
ing to evolve a variety that will stand a cold 
of zero. R. .j. REDDING, 
Director Georgia Experiment Station. 
The Hired Man’s Bicycle.—1 consider it 
a sorry day for a farmer when the hired 
man buys a bicycle, and to make matters 
worse, every day is a sorry day as long as 
the cycle remains in the possession of the 
hired man. I can easily remember when 
hired men didn’t know what bicycles were; 
how the faithful creatures would labor in 
the field until their shadows reached nearly 
across the field, and then they would peace¬ 
fully drive the cows home aud milk them in 
the twilight. After a hearty suppei, and a 
little rest, they would go to bed with clear 
consciences and tranquil minds. In the 
morning, work could be resumed with re¬ 
newed vigor. But now it has all changed. 
Just as the heat of the day has passed, and 
one can work with a little comfort, the 
modern hired man throws down his tools 
and rushes for the cows. They are hustled 
to the barn in a manner that discourages 
them in their very attempt at giving milk. 
The chores are all slighted and half done. 
If supper is ready he hastily swallows a few 
mouthfuls; if not, he goes without. His 
bloomers are on in a jiffy, and mounting his 
wheel, he is off like a flash. Sometimes he goes 
to ride with Jones’s hired girl, who also rides 
a wheel and wears bloomers. Sometimes he goes with 
other hired men to a distant clam bake or lawn party. 
Every evening he makes a date for the next evening. 
It’s different in the morning ; the anxious cows gather 
around the barn and fairly beg to be milked. But the 
modern hired man is in no hurry now. His knees 
feel weak, the effect ot' a 30-mile ride after supper. 
His head aches, the effect of over-exertion and excite¬ 
ment. He is tired all the morning, and hardly recov¬ 
ers himself in time to go again. Now, I think that 
the bicycle is one of the most useful of all modern 
inventions ; but I do long for the good old times when 
the hired man went to church a-foot, and went to 
town on horseback. jean burton. 
Dutchess County, N. Y. 
The Best Hen Ration. — I have kept hens for a good 
many years, have tried many kinds of feed, and have 
finally concluded that the following is the best ration 
I can get: Mix. together two parts by measure fine 
wheat bran, or red middlings, two parts corn meal, 
one part g-round oats, one part ground barley, and 
one part ground meat (beef blood and bone I use). 
When there is no green food for them, I cook and mash 
about six or seven quarts of potatoes (culls) for 225 
hens. For the morning.feed, these potatoes are mixed 
with as much feed as the hens will eat up clean, and 
wet with hot water, or milk when I have it. No exact 
amount can be given, as the flock will vary according 
to their condition, and the weather. This feed is 
sometimes salted a little, and occasionally a little red 
pepper is added ; but good food is the best stimulant. 
The potatoes are omitted sometimes, and a peck of 
hay seed and clover leaves used instead. 
